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A guide to hiring creative employees

04/11/2016

Despite what people might say, you don’t have to be a creative person yourself to hire creative people for your company. It’s not about adopting crazy interviewing techniques or asking candidates ‘if you could be a biscuit, what type would you be?’.

You can encourage creative people to apply for roles simply by making a few small changes to the way you interview.

Offer Candidates An Opportunity, Not Just A Job

Most young, creative employees today are looking for a job they can grow into, not just one that pays the bills. They want a company that teaches them skills, gives them opportunities and allows them to be, well, creative.

Whether it’s the opportunity to build something, come up with new ideas or just the freedom to speak out and tweak their role, creative people like jobs that allow them to do things. When writing the job description, avoid generic statements and instead use engaging language.

If there is room for job growth, let it be known. If you’re happy to hand over creative freedom to the new employee – tell them. These are all great ways to catch the attention of creative types.

Assess Them On Their Personality And Behaviour

Knowing that someone has the skills to undertake their role is obviously incredibly important but personality assessments can be a great way to find creative people in the interview process. When taking personality and behavioural tests, creative people will tend to score highly in areas such as positivity, openness and group affiliation.

Alongside this, candidates that have a natural affiliation to a particular sector or organisation are much more likely to perform in a creative and constructive way whilst at work.

Therefore, if you can find someone who can demonstrate real excitement and passion for your company, you’re more likely to get a hardworking and creative employee.

Create An Informal Interview Atmosphere

Creative people don’t want to be dragged into a stuffy, serious business and they’ll make a judgement about what it might be like to work for you based on the interview.

Instead of jumping through the same boring interview hoops, try to weave your questions into an informal conversation and make sure you ask candidates about their passions and hobbies. If they are highly creative, it’s more likely shine through when they feel at ease.

Additionally, if you already have other creative employees at the heart of your business, you can incorporate them into the interview process too. Creative people tend to thrive in the presence of other creative types and you can use this to encourage candidates to open up and get excited about a role.

Of course, if you really want to know if someone is creative, then you should ask them about their creative accomplishments. If there’s something a creative candidate can get passionate about, let them. Asking the right questions will almost always get you the right candidate for the role.